00:00Homeopathy may be the most controversial, but also the most popular alternative medicine.
00:06While some argue against it, others swear by its great power and effectiveness.
00:12How does homeopathy work?
00:14How did it become what it is today, and what can modern medicine learn from it?
00:20The first principle of homeopathy is like cures like.
00:24Remedies use ingredients that cause the symptoms you want to cure.
00:28In practice, that means that remedies against fever could, for example, be made from belladonna, which also causes fever.
00:36A mixture based from bee venom is used to treat itchy swellings, and so on.
00:41The second principle is a special method of preparation called potentization.
00:45The idea is that diluting and agitating the ingredients activates their curative powers and enhances their effect.
00:52To do this, the ingredient is dissolved in alcohol or distilled water.
00:56Homeopaths take one part of the solution and mix it with nine parts of water, diluting it down to one-tenth of its original concentration and shaking it.
01:05What you have now is a 1X potency, one-part ingredient and nine-part solvent, named after the Roman numeral X for ten.
01:13Now this process is repeated.
01:15Take one part, mix it with nine parts of pure water, and shake it vigorously.
01:20Now you have 2X.
01:22You do this again and again until you reach the desired grade of potency.
01:26The finished remedy is then taken orally, or sometimes it's applied as little sugar pellet that is sold as globuli.
01:32A 20X potency, for example, is like dissolving one aspirin pill in the water volume of the whole Atlantic.
01:39But many are much more extreme, like 30C, for example.
01:43C means that the mixture has one part ingredient and 99 parts water.
01:48So the commonly sold 30C mixture means one part ingredient and 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 parts of water.
01:58If we wanted a globuli pill with a single atom of the original ingredient, then our pill would be the diameter of the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
02:06150 million kilometers.
02:09A pill so massive that it would collapse into a black hole under its own mass.
02:14Because of this, potentization is one of the biggest criticisms of homeopathy.
02:18The extreme dilution is supposed to make the ingredients more potent.
02:22But on a physical level, this doesn't really make sense.
02:25Most homeopathic remedies are diluted so much that not a single atom of the active ingredient is left in them.
02:32The explanation of why the mixtures still work is that shaking the mixture after every dilution leaves behind a spirit-like essence of the ingredient.
02:41Basically, the idea is that water remembers what was put into it.
02:45But if this were true, then every substance that ever met a drop of water would leave an essence behind and lead to unpredictable effects when it was accidentally ingested.
02:55Think of all the stuff that lives and floats in the oceans.
02:58Every sip of water would be a supercharged homeopathic cocktail.
03:02So how did homeopathy become the most successful alternative medicine?
03:08In the 18th century, medicine was very different from today.
03:12Treatments like bloodletting left the patient worse off than before.
03:16So German physician Samuel Hahnemann wanted a non-invasive, natural way of healing and developed homeopathy.
03:23And in fact, homeopathic hospitals were soon successful because doing no harm beats doing harm.
03:31Hahnemann imposed very strict rules on his patients.
03:34First, you had to avoid coffee, tea, alcohol, spicy food, sweet food.
03:39No old cheese, no onions, no meat, no clothes made from sheep's wool.
03:43But also no sedentary work, no sitting inside in stuffy air, no warm rooms, no riding horses, no napping, no playing games, no masturbation, and of course no reading pornographic texts, and many more.
03:56Then, and only then, would his remedies work according to the inventor of homeopathy.
04:02Of course, all of these instructions are ignored and not talked about today.
04:06Medicine has changed a lot in the last 150 years.
04:10Never before in human history have we enjoyed a comparable level of health.
04:15Never have we lived as long.
04:17And this is largely due to the new tools we've developed.
04:21Modern diagnostics, double-blinded studies, and scientific evaluation to check and prove which stuff works.
04:27Thanks to these tools, after countless studies and reviews, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that homeopathy does not have any effect beyond placebo.
04:36But even so, who cares why it works if it helps people?
04:40Maybe you tried it and felt better.
04:43Or you know someone that got over a horrible disease while using homeopathic remedies.
04:47And there are plenty of reports of it working for children and animals.
04:51What do we make of these experiences?
04:54The placebo effect is very real and not imaginary.
04:57No matter how smart you are, you're not immune to it.
05:00If people believe that something will help them feel better, their trust alone has the desired effect.
05:06And it's been proven that the placebo effect can be transferred.
05:09Children and animals rely on their parents or keepers and are in tune to their emotions.
05:14If a parent has a lot of trust in a treatment and eases up, this can help a child relax and help relieve symptoms.
05:22This can also be observed with animals who react strongly to the body language cues of the people caring for them.
05:29But the most powerful tool of homeopathy is time.
05:32Our bodies are survival machines.
05:34Infections pass on their own after a few days.
05:37But if you take some remedy when you already feel sick and then start getting better, it feels like it did indeed cure you, while actually it would have happened anyway.
05:46The homeopathy industry likes to play the gentle alternative to Big Pharma.
05:50But the homeopathic industry is Big Pharma.
05:53Billions of dollars are made with extreme profit margins.
05:56The homeopathy industry has its own lobby organizations and fights its enemies as hard as it can.
06:02A lot of money is on the line.
06:04Globally, the market is expected to reach over 17 billion by 2024.
06:10Some critics even argue that the homeopathic industry is bad for public health because it creates distrust in proven medicine.
06:17The belief in homeopathy correlates with skepticism about vaccinations.
06:22This can discourage people to seek the help they need when their lives or the lives of their children are on the line.
06:28But there is actually a key to the success of homeopathy that we could and should copy.
06:35The first consultation with a homeopath can take hours and is very personal.
06:41For a patient who's already been on a pilgrimage from doctor to doctor,
06:44this level of attention and empathy can make a huge difference to their well-being,
06:48even if the conversation was not the point of the therapy.
06:52Modern medicine is efficient.
06:54It saves millions of lives each year.
06:57But it's also a strictly organized system.
07:00Tight budgets force doctors and nurses to deal with lots of patients.
07:04Consultations need to be time-efficient.
07:07Diagnoses made quickly, treatments fast,
07:10which can leave patients feeling invisible, scared and left behind.
07:15This is what modern medicine can learn from homeopathy.
07:18It meets a human need that has been left unfulfilled.
07:22We need to make time for the individual again.
07:25See people, not numbers.
07:27But as important as empathy is, it's not a substitute for actual treatment.
07:32Faith can move mountains, but sugar water can't cure cancer.
